Maintain
June 27-28. 75 degrees and sunny Saturday, 68 and rainy Sunday. I’m pretty sure it’s rained every day this month so far, at least a bit. Rain makes the garden green…and sets the stage for some nasty fungus-related diseases down the road. But forget about all that…
Saturday was spent with the Phalens, Scott & Carolyn, and Lynwa, rolling out straw from the farmer across the street, Bruno Astorino (picture below of his farm). First, mow (or weed, doesn’t matter). Second, put down newspaper - I try to measure my rows so they’re one or two newspapers wide, makes it easier. And third, roll out the straw (beats putting it on by pitchfork), if you’re lucky enough to be putting in squash which needs a row just the width of a roll of hay. In a perfect world, you’d use straw instead of hay (no seeds), but you take what you can get. The weather started socking in a bit by the end of the day.
Sunday was nothing like Saturday - cold, rainy (June gets high marks for consistency) - but fortunately David and Lee Feikens came up, with Kris Burns, and we weeded…and weeded…and then cooked, chard and our chioggia beets, which taste like a beet candy cane.
